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Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletics

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Panthers rout Missouri-St. Louis
Kentucky Wesleyan College’s Chris Williams steals the ball from Missouri-St. Louis’ Ryan Lawrence during the first half of the Panthers’ 99-58 win over the Tritons on Saturday night in the opening round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament at the Sportscenter. John Dunham, Messenger-Inquirer.

Panthers rout Missouri-St. Louis

Box Score

Kentucky Wesleyan College showed just how vast the gulf is between the No. 6 and 7 seeds in the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.

The Panthers had absolutely no trouble with Missouri-St. Louis on Saturday night in the first round of the league tournament at the Sportscenter, romping to a 99-58 victory.

In all it was a major fun Saturday night of basketball for the KWC men's team, which was the sixth seed.

"Whenever we can get everybody to contribute and be a part of this, it's tremendous," said Chris Williams, who had 16 points and was one of five Panthers scoring in double figures.

Anthony Young led KWC with 17 points. Cardell McFarland also scored 16 points, taking just six shots and missing only one. Kwan Waller scored 12 and Marseilles Stewart 10.

The Panthers were rolling almost from the opening tip, and they were tremendous shooting the basketball. KWC hit 34-of-54 from the floor for 63 percent. Wesleyan made 9-of-19 on 3-pointers for 47 percent. KWC was 22-of-30 from the free-throw line for 73 percent.

Missouri-St. Louis made 20-of-55 from the floor for 36 percent and 4-of-17 from 3-point range for 23.5 percent. Gerald Fulton scored 20 points to lead the Tritons (16-11).

"We had a week to prepare, but you don't ever know when you're going to shoot that kind of percentage," KWC coach Todd Lee said. "I also thought our guys were focused defensively. I felt like we would play well."

Williams was 3-for-5 on 3-pointers and McFarland made both of his 3s.

The game was never in doubt, and KWC was up by 20 points with nine minutes remaining in the first half.

The Panthers were ahead 52-23 at halftime and looked ready to keep their season running as long as possible.

KWC is ranked No. 10 in the Midwest Region and needs to be in the top eight of the regional rankings to make the NCAA Division II Tournament. Every victory the rest of the way in the conference tournament figures to build the case for KWC to make the Midwest Region field.

That won't be easy for the Panthers, who take an 18-8 record into a quarterfinal matchup with Northern Kentucky at 2:30 p.m. Friday at Maryville University in St. Louis.

"We said in the huddle that the name of the game now is to win," Williams said. "If we lose now, we're out. That's how we've got to look at this. We still feel like this win isn't good enough. We have to win the next game, then the game after that and the game after that."

There were several facets of Saturday's game that encouraged Lee. One game after McFarland scored 47 points and took 22 shots, he was content to play within the offense and let others do the scoring.

"Cardell was in the flow of the offense in the first half," Lee said. "We got a lot of baskets in transition, and he was looking to pass the ball ahead. He's just worried about winning.

"It was good to see Chris have that type of offensive game. If he makes three or four 3s, that's another thing that makes a big difference for us."
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